This
chart shows which baybayin characters to use in place of foreign letters
and sounds. Remember that kudlits can also be used to change the A sound
of the baybayin letter
pairs shown here.

Alphabet

Baybayin

A

AU as in Paul (O)

B

C as in Cathy (Ka)

C as in Celina (Sa)

CH as in Charles (TiYa)

CH as in Charlene (SiYa)

D

E

F (Pa)

G as in Gordon (Ga)

G as in George (DiYa)

G as in Gil (Ha)

H

I

J as in James (DiYa)

J as in José (Ha)

K

L

LL (LY sound) (LiYa)

LL (Y sound) (Ya)

M

N

NG

O

P

Q as in Quezon (Ka)

QU as in Quinn (KuWa)

R

RR

S

SH as in Shirley (SiYa)

T

TH as in Theodore (Ta)

TH as in the (Da)

U

V (Ba)

W

X as in extreme (EKi)

X as in xylophone (Sa)

X as in Mexico (Ha)

Y

Z (Sa)

How do I write my name in baybayin?

I often get e-mail from visitors to this web site who, in spite of all the
information presented here about the history and the method of baybayin writing, have difficulty applying it to modern words.
Their most frequently asked question is, “How do I write my
name in baybayin?” This simple question requires a rather complex answer
because the baybayin was never adapted to write English or Spanish words. It was
not even fully capable of accurately representing Filipino words 500 years ago.

The
aim of this page is to help you to write non-Filipino names and words while
using only the characters and symbols that ancient Filipinos actually used in
the 1500s and 1600s. And by “non-Filipino” words, I am referring to all non-native
words, even Hispanic names that are common in the Philippines today, like Dela Cruz
and Santos.

The shapes of the baybayin letters on this page
are my own font design. You can use other styles if you choose. (See Baybayin Styles
or Baybayin Fonts for
ideas.)

The Basics

There
are several ways to deal with non-Filipino words, but first you need to know the
basics of baybayin writing. This is explained on the page entitled, How to
Write the Ancient Script of the Philippines. I encourage you to read it. Learn
how to write simple Filipino words first (words in which every consonant is
followed by a vowel) before you move on to words that have several consonants
clustered together.

Now
let’s tackle foreign words. The most important thing to remember is: DO NOT
transcribe words letter for letter. That is to say, do not simply substitute
alphabet characters with baybayin characters. For example, if we write the name Dela Cruz, weDO NOT write
it like this:

As
you already know, (if you read the “How to” page) each baybayin consonant
letter is a syllable that is pronounced with the vowel A.
So, in the example above, what we have written is meaningless. It reads:

DA E LA
A KA RA U SA

Unfortunately, I have seen organizations with logos and people who have been
tattooed like this, but what they are displaying is really just senseless
gobbledygook. Even the Commision on the Filipino Language has commited
this blunder with several titles on their official web site at www.
komfil.gov.ph. (The baybayin font they used just happens to be my
own "Tagalog Doctrina 1593".)

The
vowels and the kudlit marks must be used properly. So, to review briefly, a
kudlit mark is placed above a letter to change its A
sound into an I or an E. If the kudlit is
placed below the letter, the sound is changed to O or U. It is not
necessary to write out all the vowels as individual letters. The vowel letters
are only used when they are alone in a syllable. And if a consonant letter has no vowel
sound, then it should not be written at all. Here is how to write the name Dela
Cruz:

Here the baybayin characters DA and E have become DE. The letters LA
and A are now LA. There is no
letter C in the baybayin so it has been
changed to KA. Then, KA, RA and U have been reduced to KU RU,
(I will explain that later.) And the letter SA
(for Z) has been dropped because Cruz
is not pronounced with an A at
the end.

Spell it the way it sounds...

Aside
from knowing how to use the kudlits correctly, writing foreign words in baybayin
is easier if you ignore the way they are spelled in the alphabet. Just spell
them the way they sound and ignore the silent letters. Even with Filipino words
like ng and mga, write them as they sound; not as they are
spelled. That is: nang
and manga.

This rule applies to English vowels sounds too. For example, in a name like Ryan,
the Y is pronounced starting with an A sound. So, it should be
written: RA YA. The letter I often starts with an A sound
too in words like diamond, DA YA MO.

Non-baybayin Letters

Many
foreign words have letters that do not exist in the baybayin. If you are
familiar with the abakada, which was
the official Filipino alphabet up until the 1980s, you can use the ordinary
letter substitutions that were common back then, b
for v, p
for f, k or s for c,
etc. If you don’t know the abakada,
don’t worry. Just use the chart on the right side of this page. It shows which baybayin
letters can be used to approximate the sounds of Spanish and English letters.

Consonants without Vowels

The
biggest problem with the baybayin is writing consonants without vowels. Usually
those letters are just omitted. But if you feel that certain consonants are
vital to understanding a word, there are some solutions.

In
our example above, the word Cruz was
spelled KU RU, even though there was no vowel between the letters C and
R.
This was how the word was written in the Doctrina Christiana of 1593, which
is the oldest surviving example of baybayin writing today. This
is similar to the way the Japanese spell English words in their syllabic
alphabet; consonants are separated by inserting a vowel between them. Usually it is the same
vowel that immediately follows the consonant pair. In this case it was
the vowel U.

In another case, the
word Christo was written KI
RI TO in the Doctrina. This technique may be extended to many other words.
For example the name Francisco could
be written PA RA SI KO. Perhaps Japanese writing could be emulated for final
consonants too.
For example, the Z in Cruz could be
represented by adding a weakly pronounced U to the letter S,
like this: KU
RU SU. However, there is no precedent for this in historical baybayin writing. I
recommend using it in moderation – only in consonant clusters within a single
syllable, as in Cruz, Christo and Francisco.

The Lopez Method

A Spanish priest named
Francisco Lopez developed another way to write consonants without vowels in 1620. It is recognizable by its use of a
distinctive + shaped symbol, which cancels the vowel sounds of letters and
allows them to be used
like the letters in western alphabets. Ancient Filipinos never actually adopted Lopez’s
method of writing but it has become popular in modern times among people who are
unaware of its history. It is explained on the “How to” page and on
the baybayin history page.

Alternatives

Some English words are very difficult to write in the baybayin script. So,
you may want to consider translating them into Filipino first, or some other Philippine language, before you write them in baybayin.
For example, lakas is much easier to write than strength and sampalataya
is easier than faith (or you could opt
for the Spanish word, fe). And instead
of trying to write a name like Francisco,
consider a nickname like Kiko.

Other Baybayin Pages

You can test your baybayin skills with Victor Quimson's
online baybayin translator at Ating
Baybayin. Just type any word you wish and it will show you how
it is written in the baybayin script and provide tips for adapting
it to non-Filipino words.